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High-end Kiwi designer Karen Walker received a C this year, while New Zealand headquartered company Kathmandu received a B- (down from a B last year), and formerly New Zealand owned company Macpac received a D+.

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Overall top performing brands were Zara, Cotton On Group, Country Road Group and Pacific Brands (Bonds).

Among the worst in Australia were Seed Heritage, Victoria's Secret, Forever 21 and General Pants.

"These grades tell us that consumers cannot be confident that these brands know who is making their clothes and conditions their clothes are being made in," said Baptist World Aid advocacy manager Gershon Nimbalker.

The research found that two thirds of companies were not taking any action to ensure that workers received a living wage to meet basic needs, such as food, water, shelter, clothing, power, healthcare and education.

Mr Nimbalker said popular brands like H&M, Kmart Australia and Pacific Brands (Bonds) had made "commendable" steps in ensuring their suppliers were paid enough to live on.

Other brands to do so included American Apparel, Autograph, Berlei, Dotti, and Portmans.

This year sees a huge improvement among many of the companies, with 70 per cent now working to trace where their fabrics come from, 39 per cent tracing the origins of their raw materials (such as cotton), and 32 per cent of companies paying wages significantly above the minimum.

But Mr Nimbalker said there was still work to do and the purpose of the report was ultimately to provide consumers and companies with the tools to drive change in how garment workers are treated in developing regions like India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Cambodia.